Without losing a moment, or giving the enemy time to
prepare for meeting him, Shah Ismāel put his army in motion,
and advanced through Khorasān as far as Meshhad. The
Sheibāni
retires to
Merv,
detachments of the Uzbek army all fell back and retired
to Herāt. Sheibāni Khan, who had just returned from an
expedition into the country of the Hazāras, on hearing of
Shah Ismāel’s arrival at Meshhad, perceiving that he was
too weak to meet his enemy in the field, left Jān Wafā Mirza
in Herāt, and set off with such of his troops as he could
collect, to Merv Shahjehān, a station where he could receive
reinforcements from his northern dominions; or from
which, if necessary, he could retire across the Amu. Jān
Wafā was not long able to maintain himself in Herāt. He
found it necessary, very speedily, to follow Sheibāni Khan.
Shah Ismāel himself now advanced towards Merv, and sent
on Dāneh Muhammed with a large force to clear the way.
That officer was met by Jān Wafā Mirza near Takerābād
of Merv: a desperate action ensued, in which the Persian
general fell, but Jān Wafā was defeated. Sheibāni Khan,
unable to oppose the Persians in the field, retired into the
in which
he is be-
sieged.
fort of Merv. He sent messengers to call all his generals
and chieftains from beyond the Amu, most of them having
retired with their troops to their various governments, after
the conquest of Khorasān. Many desperate actions took
place under the walls of Merv Shahjehān. Shah Ismāel,
seeing that the siege was likely to extend to great length,
which would have exposed him to an attack from the whole
force of Turkestān and Māweralnaher, pretended to be under
the necessity of raising it. He sent to tell Sheibāni Khan
that he had been rather more punctual to his engagements
than that prince had been; that he had performed the
pilgrimage of Meshhad as he had promised, while Sheibāni
Khan had failed to keep his appointment; that he was now
under the necessity of returning home to his own dominions,
but would still be extremely happy to meet him on the road,
whenever he set out on his intended pilgrimage to Mekka.
He then retired with all his forces from before Merv, and
appeared to be measuring back his way to Irāk. The feint
Decisive
battle.
succeeded. Sheibāni Khan followed him with twenty-five
thousand*
men, but had scarcely passed a river about
ten miles from Merv, when Shah Ismāel, who threw a
body of horse into his rear, broke down the bridge, and
fell upon him with seventeen thousand cavalry. The
regulated valour of the Kizilbāshes, or red-bonnets, the
name given to the Persian soldiers, speedily prevailed.
Sheibāni
defeated??
Sheibāni Khan was defeated, and his retreat cut off. He
was forced to fly, attended by about five hundred men,
chiefly the sons of Sultans, the heads of tribes, and men of
rank, into an enclosure which had been erected for accommodating
the cattle of travellers, and of the neighbouring
peasants. They were closely pursued, and hard pressed.
The enclosure had only one issue, which was that attacked
by the pursuers. The Khan leaped his horse over the wall
and slain.
of the enclosure, towards the river, but fell, and was soon
overlaid, and smothered by the numbers who followed him.
After the battle his dead body was sought for, and was
disentangled from the heap of slain by which it was covered.
His head was cut off, and presented to Shah Ismāel, who
ordered his body to be dismembered, and his limbs to be
sent to different kingdoms. The skin of the head was stripped
off, stuffed with hay, and sent to Sultan Bayazīd,*
the son
of Sultan Muhammed Ghāzi, the Turkish Emperor of
Constantinople. His skull, set in gold, the king used as a
drinking-cup, and was proud of displaying it at great
entertainments. An anecdote, illustrative of the barbarous
manners of the Persians, is recorded by Mirza Sikander.
The Prince of Mazenderān, who still held out against Shah
Ismāel, had been accustomed often to repeat, that he was
wholly in the interests of Sheibāni Khan, and, using an
idiomatic expression, that his hand was on the skirts of
the Khan’s garment; meaning, that he clung to him for
assistance and protection. A messenger from Shah Ismāel,
advancing into the presence of the prince while sitting in
state in his court, addressed him, and said, that he never had
been so fortunate as literally to have placed his hand on the
hem of Sheibāni Khan’s garment, but that now Sheibāni’s
hand was indeed on his; and, with these words, dashed the
rigid hand of Sheibāni Khan on the hem of the prince’s robe,
and rushing through the midst of the astonished courtiers,
mounted and escaped uninjured. About a thousand*
Uzbeks, with a number of women of rank, and children, fell
into the hands of the Persians.*
Shah Ismāel, immediately after the battle, marched to
Shah Is-
māel occu-
pies Kho-
rasān.
Herāt, the gates of which were opened to him. He commanded
the divine service in the Mosques to be celebrated
according to the Shīa rites, which he had introduced into
Persia, but met with great opposition from the principal
men of the place. Enraged at this, he put to death the
chief preacher of the Great Mosque, the Sheikh-ul-Islam, who
was the chief Musulman doctor and judge, with several of the
most eminent divines, as a punishment for the obstinacy
and contumacy with which they adhered to the old doctrines
and ceremonies; and in the end found that it was a far
easier matter to conquer a kingdom than to change the most
insignificant religious opinions or usages of its inhabitants.
The transactions of the Uzbeks for some time after the death of Sheibāni Khan are not very distinctly detailed. Jāni Beg* appears to have succeeded to the immediate command of the Uzbek army, and, with him, Shah Ismāel soon after concluded an agreement, by which it was stipulated that the Uzbeks should all retire beyond the Amu, which was to form the boundary between them and the Persians. Abdallah Khan appears to have held Bokhāra, while Taimūr Khan,* the son of Sheibāni Khan, reigned in Samarkand.
Bābur The defeat and death of Bābur’s most inveterate foe, from
whom all his misfortunes had originated, and by whom
he had been driven from the dominions of his forefathers,
now opened to him the fairest hopes of recovering the
kingdoms of his father and uncles. Khan Mirza, his cousin,
immediately on hearing of the death of Sheibāni Khan,
wrote to congratulate him on the event, and invited him
Shawāl,
A. H. 916.
Jan. A. D.
1511.
into Badakhshān; and Bābur having, without delay,
crossed the mountains from Kābul, united his forces with
those of the Mirza.*
He was in hopes that he might have
carried the important fort of Hissār by a sudden attack, and
for that purpose advanced across the Amu up to the walls
of the place. But the Uzbeks had already had leisure to
recover from the first effects of the consternation into which
they had been thrown by their defeat; and the Governor of
Hissār, aware that it was likely to be one of the first objects
of attack, had collected a body of men, and put the town in
a posture of defence. Though the loss of the Uzbeks in the
battle had been great, their power was by no means broken.
There was no force left in Māweralnaher from which they
had anything to apprehend. It is probable that they were
speedily joined by numbers of volunteers, and by some
wandering tribes*
from the deserts beyond the Sirr. The
provinces between that river and the Amu were too rich
a prey to be easily abandoned by brave and needy Tartars;
But fails in
the enter-
prise.
so that Bābur, after advancing into the vicinity of Hissār,
finding that his strength was not adequate to the attempt,
was compelled to abandon the enterprise, to re-cross the
Amu, and retire towards Kunduz.
About this time Shah Ismāel, who appears to have been disposed to cultivate the friendship of Bābur, sent back, with an honourable retinue, that prince’s sister, Khanzādeh Begum, who had fallen into his hands along with the other prisoners, after the defeat of Sheibāni Khan at Merv. The Begum had been left behind in Samarkand, when Bābur, about ten years before, had been forced to abandon the town after defending it for five months. She had been conveyed into the haram* of Sheibāni Khan, who had by her one son, to whom he gave the kingdom of Badakhshān, but who died young, two years after this time. Sheibāni Khan afterwards gave her in marriage to a man of no family, and much below her station.* She was now sent back by Shah Ismāel with a conciliatory message, and Bābur, who had been preparing to send an embassy of congratulation to that prince, embraced this opportunity of dispatching Khan Mirza with rich presents, to thank him for this proof of his friendship, to congratulate him on his victory, and, at the same time, to dispose him to lend him some support in recovering his former dominions.*
Bābur